Samuels supports bullet gas line, education reform

WASILLA — Let’s fuel Alaska now and work toward a larger dream once our energy future is secure and affordable.

That’s the idea Alaska gubernatorial candidate Ralph Samuels has hitched his campaign to. Issue No. 1 for the Anchorage businessman is the state’s economy, and the economic priority is building a small-diameter natural gas pipeline from the North Slope to Southcentral.

Samuels was elected to the Alaska State House of Representatives first in 2002. He was made chair of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee a year before then-Gov. Frank Murkowski began negotiations on a gas pipeline, negotiations that had to run through Samuels’ committee.

“I became best known for being knowledgeable on gas pipeline issues,” Samuels said.

He was re-elected in 2004 and 2006, and became the House majority leader his last term in office.

Now he is running for governor because, “The Legislature is not built to look 10 years down the road,” he said. He sees worrying trends — high unemployment, declining tourism, dwindling oil revenues — and he feels no other gubernatorial candidate is willing to talk about these issues with necessary urgency.

Not only would a bullet line provide cheap energy for most Alaskans, but Samuels said it would spur other areas of development. It would power the refinery in Fairbanks, the base in Eielson, the mine in Donlin Creek and the homes and businesses in the Railbelt. A bullet line would keep the liquefied natural gas plant at Nikiski open and exporting the product to Asian markets.

The bullet line would cost about $5 billion to construct, Samuels said, and the state already owns about 80 percent to 85 percent of the land necessary for the project. The state could put a small tariff on the gas to get some cash back, but Samuels warns it would essentially be a tax on Alaskans as they would be the main consumers of the gas.

The gas supply on the North Slope is big enough to keep a bullet line operating without harming the prospects of a larger, out-of-state gas line, Samuels said. But, with shale gas disrupting the market in the Lower 48, he doesn’t expect to see the larger line until 2020 at the earliest.

“(The bullet line) doesn’t hurt if you get a large sale of gas somewhere else,” Samuels said. “But at least we would have something for ourselves.”

A larger diameter in-state gas line running from the North Slope to Valdez presents problems and not enough room for future growth to make it worth the $20 billion investment, Samuels said. First, there is no LNG plant in Valdez, and the plant in Nikiski already has the permit to export the commodity.

Second, and more disturbingly, Samuels said the known reserves in Prudhoe Bay are large enough to supply the pipeline to Valdez with gas for 70 years. This means future gas development is no longer necessary to make the line to Valdez pay off.

“Why would you go explore for more? You don’t want the (line to Valdez) because that’s all you get,” Samuels said.

Beyond a bullet gas line, Samuels said he would like to see the state invest in capital projects that will attract other, private capital investments. He pointed to the rail spur to Point MacKenzie as one such example.

“I’ve never seen people in Fairbanks so excited for a project that is not in their backyard,” Samuels said.

Other than the economy, Samuels said his second biggest priority is reforming the way education is brought to the students in rural Alaska. He said he would work with the communities to come up with more affordable and effective options than requiring a school in every community with at least 10 students.

“In my first four years, I think that would be pretty good if I could build a bullet line and reform rural education,” Samuels said.

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.

The Frontiersman interview with Bill Walker can be found here:

http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2010/01/25/local_news/doc4b5e55be66f40838567606.txt